Survey: Infrastructure-as-a-Service Adoption on the Rise

According to a new report from the Yankee Group, enterprise adoption of infrastructure as a service is growing rapidly.

The Yankee Group report entitled “Is IAAS Moving Beyond Just Cloud Fluff?” shows that 24 percent of large enterprises with cloud experience are already using IAAS, and an additional 37 percent expect to adopt IAAS during the next 24 months. The new report is based on Yankee Group’s Anywhere Enterprise: 2010 U.S. Cloud Computing FastView Survey, which uncovers adoption trends for this pay-as-you-go infrastructure solution.

Cloud infrastructure services or IAAS delivers computer infrastructure, typically a platform virtualization environment as a service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data center space or network equipment, clients instead buy those resources as a fully outsourced service. The service is typically billed on a utility computing basis and amount of resources consumed (and therefore the cost) will typically reflect the level of activity. Amazon Web Services is a prime example of an IAAS provider.

For its survey, the Yankee Group queried more than 400 U.S. IT decision-makers. The survey itself included 53 questions focused on these companies’ plans for cloud computing. A free data snapshot with highlights of the survey is available for download at: web.yankeegroup.com/2010CloudComputingFastView.html.

“The desire to adopt is there, but IAAS solutions and providers still have some barriers to address,” said Sandra Palumbo, Yankee Group research fellow and author of the report, in a statement. “As adoption plans begin to mount, the time is now for service providers, systems integrators and others to solidify their solutions and address the lingering concerns around the cloud.”

Meanwhile, other findings of the Yankee Group study indicate that the No. 1 barrier for enterprise adoption of IAAS is virtualization security. However, those enterprises that already have deployed said the boost they get in terms of enhanced regulatory compliance, data migration, reliability, employee use and quantitative benefits, make the move to IAAS worth it.

Other findings from the Yankee Group survey, include that 60 percent of enterprises considering IAAS in the next 24 months are actually planning to implement it in the next 12 months. And though the majority of all cloud adopters said they view systems integrators as their most trusted partners for cloud computing (29 percent), IAAS early adopters say telecom companies are best positioned for cloud services (33 percent).